He's Gone Country

    I've been listening to Country music the past few months. It's a homecoming. While my mother loves to tell how when I was a baby she would play all genres of music for me, all I remember is Country Music. KLAC (now defunct) was the station of choice. I hardly listened to any other kind of music or any other radio station. Though my listening tastes changed as I entered my teens, and other stations took over my radio life, I still considered good ol' KLAC my "home station." When I heard it, nostalgia and good feelings welled up inside of me. It was a sad day when the format inexplicably, without warning changed overnight to "golden oldies," and Doris Day and Frank Sinatra replaced Reba McEntire and Garth Brooks.

    I stopped listening to Country music entirely when the Garth-zation took over. Newbies annexed Country music faster than Borg on an infant civilization. When Garth Brooks hit the Billboard Top 100 and Country went mainstream again, a strange thing happened: stations stopped playing the old-line artists. Suddenly you couldn't pay to here George Jones or Merle Haggard. Ask a modern Country "fan" what an "Okie from Muskogee" is and you'll likely get a blank stare. Even more suddenly than KLAC had disappeared, unknowns flooded Country music with a more pop-oriented, mainstream-appealing sound. The record companies, hoping to cash in on the craze, pushed established artists off their rolls, rushed to fill their lineups with "hot new talent." Not only couldn't you hear the classic tunes, the established artists found it hard to get new albums recorded. When they did finally get new material recorded, they couldn't get it played. A new generation of Country converts has grown up clueless about their roots.
    One of the most heinous practices of this new wave of Country musicians and radio stations was to re-record the old songs, sometimes exactly, and play them. What was wrong with the old, hit versions? Nothing except the stations adamant policy of not playing anything by the artists who made Country. Perhaps most disgusting was that old, established radio stations turned their backs on the stars who had sustained them and panted after these newbies as badly as the labels. Without the stations support of these practices these wrongs could never have happened.

    If the tide hadn't turned slightly, I'd still not be listening to modern Country. So, what happened? My then current fave station abandoned its format. The new version left me cold. Flipping around the dial I landed on KLAC's sister station KZLA. Though I didn't listen to it, I had left KZLA in the presets. Every once in a while I would switch it on, then, nearly as quickly, switch it off. I didn't care for the sound, and I had no idea who any of these people were. There's a certain comfort in being around those you "know," the "when everybody knows your name" effect Cheers traded on for so many years. When all you hear are unfamiliar voices, it can be uncomfortable and disconcerting. I had a similar feeling when reading the Billboard Charts. I didn't know who any of these people were.
    Some changes took place since I left Country. The sound has shifted slightly back, probably because Country isn't as hot a property as it was a few years ago (the ever-present Garth being an exception). The labels are seeing that there isn't as much cashing in to be done as they had hoped. With it unnecessary to cater to the mainstream, Country is free to return to a more traditional sound. This phase of Country Mania is fading, if not over. Country Mania hits every 10 to 15 years, the previous incarnation being the Urban Cowboy craze. Remember Gilly's and the mechanical bulls? Check out the film Urban Cowboy and see John Travolta in-between Grease and Pulp Fiction.
    Also, the radio stations would seem to be changing. Realizing, as are the labels, the mainstream is moving, they are returning to the old ways. KLAC never had a problem playing Country flavored Rock/Pop music. There are some such songs I heard first on KLAC (such as Every Breath You Take) and some I only heard on KLAC (Lionel Richie's Deep River Woman, Neil Diamond's Forever in Blue Jeans, et cetera). That's a practice KZLA has adopted. It's a good move. Also, some of the old songs, and by extension the long gone artists who recorded them, have begun reappearing. Actually, it's a slap in the face to the old-line Country fans and artists. "Hey, we'll prostitute ourselves while there's money to be made. When they're not giving anymore, we'll come back and do things your way." Yep, till the next Country Mania rolls around. Then watch them drop you as quickly as the fickle mainstream dropped them.

    Overall, things look good. Country music is finding itself again and casting off the facade it adopted in false hopes of permanently winning the mainstream.

    I just hope next time it's smarter.